Dubai rulers reject slavery case (young camel jockeys)

[leftchick]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6053232.stm

Dubai's ruling family says a legal case filed against it in the United States for allegedly enslaving thousands of young camel jockeys is baseless.

The allegations come in a class action filed in Miami by lawyers representing six unidentified parents and thousands of unnamed children.

It accuses Dubai's ruler, his brother Hamdan and 500 others of being involved in trafficking and enslaving children.

The ruling family says it has banned child jockeys and overhauled the sport.

The legal case accuses Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, his brother, Sheikh Hamdan and 500 others of being involved in trafficking and enslaving young children from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan and Mauritania.

[fasttense]

1. And these are the same people operating our largest ports. n/t

[Nolo_Contendre]

2. Wrong. The Dubai ports deal fell through

because of opposition from xenophobes and bigots.

The child camel jockey problem is an old one in a part of the world where child labor has not been illegal until recently. It is akin to US abuse of migrant laborers. The solution they have come up with is robot jockeys.

http://www.cameljockeys.org/
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7705

[JCMach1]

3. Now Halliburton will own the ports... yeah, that was an improvement

Also, this lawsuit is frivolous. As soon as the issue was uncovered, the rulers dealt with it effectively... including repatriating and helping ($$$) the child jockeys.